Local TV News Analysis – KPLR

The first thing that I noticed about today’s newscast on KPLR was that they started off with the top story of the day about a little girl being victim of a sex offender. The anchors were Rick Edlund and Melanie Moon. Rick was wearing a dark grayish suit with a blue under shirt and a red tie. Melanie was wearing a red suit jacket. The first reporter was Tony Miller and he was reporting from Centerville, Illinois. There were no live shots, but the story package had a shot of school building, surrounding neighborhood, and interviewed personnel’s. Later in the middle of the story he had a stand up outside the school building. The first story that I remember was about a man who was a convicted sex offender who abducted and tried to molest a little school girl. Another story that I remember was about inflation and rising prices in food and energy which are the basic needs. The reporter from the news room was reporting about the food commodities price rise. The package story was also related to an increase in demand as well. One of the commuters said that 2 million people in China and India are eating better. Story also included issues of oil, energy, education and health care as well. The third story was about the Missouri steroid use. The story was about testing the student athletes regarding the use of steroids. My overall impression of the news was just okay. I don’t think the news team did a very good job. The anchors didn’t seem energetic on the camera; it looked like as if they were just reading the news stories one by one. The credibility can be questioned because there could have been better stories to cover than just talking about price rise for few minutes to fill in the news cast. I don’t think I can watch this news station again anymore.